From the Pastor's Pen June Newsletter

Autopsy of a Deceased Church

First in a series on church health.

Now hear this, the following information, based on an

article by Thom S. Rainer on his blog, is not intended as

an indictment of any particular church or congregation.
It is intended as a reminder that dying churches don’t die
overnight; they show signs for many years. Rainer’s blog
centered on his experience as a church consultant in
2003. After visiting and assessing a once vibrant and
active church, he came away with the following
assessment. He titled the article, “Autopsy of a Deceased
Church.” It first appeared on his blog April 24, 2013. I
nvite you to read this information and take it to heart.

 

“I was their church consultant in 2003. The church’s

peak attendance was 750 in 1975. By the time I got
there the attendance had fallen to an average of 83. The
large sanctuary seemed to swallow the relatively small
crowd on Sunday morning.

The reality was that most of the members did not
want me there. They were not about to pay a consultant
to tell them what was wrong with their church. Only
when a benevolent member offered to foot my entire bill
did the congregation grudgingly agree to retain me.
I worked with the church for three weeks. The
problems were obvious; the solutions were difficult.
On my last day, the benefactor walked me to my rental
car. “What do you think, Thom?” he asked. He could see
the uncertainty in my expression, so he clarified. “How
long can our church survive?” I paused for a moment,
and then offered the bad news. “I believe the church will
close its doors in five years.”

I was wrong. The church closed just a few weeks ago.

Like many dying churches, it held on to life tenaciously.
This church lasted ten years after my terminal diagnosis.
My friend from the church called to tell me the news.
I took no pleasure in discovering that not only was my
diagnosis correct, I had mostly gotten right all the signs
of the impending death of the church. Together my
friend and I reviewed the past ten years. I think we
were able to piece together a fairly accurate
autopsy. Here are eleven things I learned.

 

1. The church refused to look like the community. The

community began a transition toward a lower

socioeconomic class thirty years ago, but the church

members had no desire to reach the new residents. The

congregation thus became an island of middle-class

members in a sea of lower-class residents.

 

2. The church had no community-focused ministries.

This part of the autopsy may seem to be stating the

obvious, but I wanted to be certain. My friend affirmed

my suspicions. There was no attempt to reach the

community.

 

3. Members became more focused on memorials. Do not

hear my statement as a criticism of memorials. Indeed, I

recently funded a memorial in memory of my late

grandson. The memorials at the church were chairs,

tables, rooms, and other places where a neat plaque

could be placed. The point is that the memorials became

an obsession at the church. More and more emphasis

was placed on the past.

 

4. The percentage of the budget for members’ needs

kept increasing. At the church’s death, the percentage

was over 98 percent.

 

5. There were no evangelistic emphases. When a church

loses its passion to reach the lost, the congregation

begins to die

 

6. The members had more and more arguments about

what they wanted. As the church continued to decline

toward death, the inward focus of the members turned

caustic. Arguments were more frequent; business

meetings became more acrimonious.

 

7. With few exceptions, pastoral tenure grew shorter

and shorter. The church had seven pastors in its final ten

years. The last three pastors were bi-vocational. All of

the seven pastors left discouraged.

 

8. The church rarely prayed together. In its last eight

years, the only time of corporate prayer was a three minute

period in the Sunday worship service. Prayers

were always limited to members, their friends and

families, and their physical needs.

 

9. The church had no clarity as to why it existed. There

was no vision, no mission, and no purpose.

 

10. The members idolized another era. All of the active

members were over the age of 67 the last six years of the

church. And they all remembered fondly, to the point of

idolatry, was the era of the 1970s. They saw their future

to be returning to the past.
 

 

11. The facilities continued to deteriorate. It wasn’t

really a financial issue. Instead, the members failed to

see the continuous deterioration of the church building.

Simple stated, they no longer had “outsider eyes.”

Though this story is bleak and discouraging, we must

learn from such examples. As many as 100,000

churches in America could be dying. Their time is short,

perhaps less than ten years”

 

Reading the autopsy reports of our friends is usually not

a good way to get ourselves back intro shape.

Nevertheless, let’s take heed of the above report and

examine our healthy practices and make our Church a

place of health and growth.

Next issue:

“Exploring Pilgrim Church’s

Strengths”